Sports with Bob McFlurry
24 year old Lebron James, King James, just lost the Eastern Conference Finals to the Orlando Magic. Now I don’t despise Lebron James but I’ve got a real problem with people crowning Lebron James the Michael Jordan of his era without winning anything.
I’ll agree that he is an ambasador of Basketball, I’ll agree that he is a top 5 player in the league, I’ll agree from sitting behind the visitors bench at a Sixers/Cavs game that Lebron James is a pretty cool individual.
What I can’t do is root for the man. Not when he’s got a Billion other people rooting for him, not when he’s shaking hands with Jay-Z and not when he’s about to bolt from Cleveland for a Big Market after the coming season.
The guy who is supposed to be the epitome of class and sportsmanship walked off the court tonight without shaking the other teams hands, without congratulating Olympic teammate Dwight Howard on his advance to the Finals and without doing any of the postgame press conferences he so enjoys after a win.
I think lost in this is the win of Patrick Ewing, frontcourt coach for the Magic. This man delivered on a gaurantee to win the series against defending champion Boston Celtics and now helped coach his most apt pupil to a finals birth over this generations version of Michael Jordan, a feat he could never achieve as a player.
What Lebron James proved to me today is that he could take the Orlando Magic exactly as far as the Sixers took them in the playoffs, 6 games. He proved to me that he could not get to the NBA Finals with the wealth of talent that was given to him this year. He proved to me that he may end up to be no better than Allen Iverson given the fact that Iverson took the likes of Tyrone Hill, George Lynch, Aaron McKie and Jumaine Jones to The NBA Final and actually won a game. To liken each others situation, both had a 4 time Defensive Player of the year on the team and Eric Snow running point. and in both instances Lebron either failed to win a finals game or failed to reach the finals.
Basically until Lebron James is paired with his Scottie Pippen, he is at the mercy of defensive schemes that attack him and only him. As good as he is and as good as he will be, a team game like Basketball can and will never be won by one person. The sooner Lebron realizes what Jordan embraced and what Iverson ignored, the closer he will be to the hardware he desires from the NBA.
That may be after this coming season when Lebron is eligible for free-agency. Or it may seemingly be never, doomed to a career of personal accolades and highlight reels but never the ultimate prize of NBA Champion just like Allen Iverson.
Only time will tell, and at 24, Lebron James (or David Stern) still has time to write his legacy.